Saturday, November 5, 2011

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

 This week I have been trying to establish at least two professional contacts from a country outside of the United States. The first step I took was sending an email to someone that I know in New Zealand. I know that at one point she worked in the Early Childhood Field, but I did remember that she changed jobs, so I was not sure if she still worked with children. I received her message back and was disappointed to find out that she no longer works in this field, she now works with teens and young adults.
I also looked on two websites, http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html and http://www.naeyc.org/resources/partnership/globalalliance. I sent an email to Early Childhood Professionals in Germany, Israel, Brazil, and The Philippines, to request if I could have the opportunity to correspond with them. I have not heard back yet. I am still holding out hope that I hear something back by early of next week, I prefer to correspond directly rather than have to do the alternate and listen to the podcasts.

The early childhood website I have chosen is The Children's Defense Fund. http://www.childrensdefense.org/home.html I started reviewing the various websites that were listed and I told myself, I will know the right one when I read about it and it feels exciting and I want to learn more.  This is what I read when I knew this was the site I wanted to learn more about: 

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is a non-profit child advocacy organization that has worked relentlessly for over 35 years to ensure a level playing field for all children. We champion policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education and a moral and spiritual foundation. Supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations, CDF advocates nationwide on behalf of children to ensure children are always a priority.

I am excited to read about what sites my colleagues chose. If you have not chosen one yet, read through as many as you can and go with one that you have a passion about.

3 comments:

  1. HiMarla,
    I did the same thing, I read through many websites, in the Global Alliance site i saw the OMEP and so I googled it and it works with UNICF and many others I loved the home page and so I decided to continue to learn more about them. I am also still waiting for email responses because i would rather do that then the podcasts.

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  2. Wow, you attempted to contact many professionals. I am sure it is discouraging to not be in contact with any yet. I agree with you about not wanting to choose the alternate. The podcasts seem less personal. I really like to be in direct contact with others.

    I know you commented on my blog about my contacts through Facebook. Hopefully you have checked that out too :)

    I can't wait to hear more about the Children's Defense Fund!!!

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  3. It is very nice to know that some one else has sent so many emails and hasn't had very much success. I to am holding out hope that I will recieve a response. I think it would be very intersting to correspond with some one and ask direct questions.
    Great Job! I am excided to learn more about the Children's Defense Fund.
    Thank you,
    Schlee ;)

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